I just noticed this game seems to require a DX10 GPU, ATI HD2000 or nVidia 8000 series and better. The PC version only requires a GeForce 6600, but I'm guessing we're being bitten by poor OS X drivers again. I just wanted to clarify that the 7300 GT, 7600 GT, X1600, and even the X1900 XT aren't supported for Mini Ninjas, even with 10.6.4 that everyone is hoping brings driver improvements? If so, I believe this is the first Feral title to drop support for DX9 GPUs and I guess the writing is on the wall for these older hardware at least for non-Legends titles, if it wasn't already.

I just noticed this game seems to require a DX10 GPU, ATI HD2000 or nVidia 8000 series and better. The PC version only requires a GeForce 6600, but I'm guessing we're being bitten by poor OS X drivers again. I just wanted to clarify that the 7300 GT, 7600 GT, X1600, and even the X1900 XT aren't supported for Mini Ninjas, even with 10.6.4 that everyone is hoping brings driver improvements? If so, I believe this is the first Feral title to drop support for DX9 GPUs and I guess the writing is on the wall for these older hardware at least for non-Legends titles, if it wasn't already.

The support for cards varies per game depending on the features the game uses. In the case of Mini Ninjas a hardware feature is not supported on these older cards when running Mac OS X so we have had to exclude them from the supported list. Newer OS updates add new features to OpenGL but these are normally new features for currently shipping cards, the card you mention have not been sold in a Mac machine by Apple since June/August 2007. (Some MacPro machine may have shipped with affected cards after this date but unlike iMacs and laptops you can update your graphics card if you have a Pro).

We are looking at ways of getting the game running on the ATI X1000 and NV 7000 series of cards however as it is almost 3 years after one of these cards was sold in a new Mac means the chances of driver updates to these older cards is not likely, the latest build of 10.6.4 we tested did not fix the issue we have in Ninjas (all the heroes draw as squashed people instead of correctly).

Seems you are right. I can't find the exactly same screenshot where the teaser on Feral's site is taken from, but compare the cap from the guy on the left-hand side in this shot with the part you see in the teaser image. The seam, the dark spot and the distribution of the lighter and darker specks are virtually identical.

Can I hear a "w00t" for Feral?

"We do what we must, because we can."
"Gaming on a Mac is like women on the internet." — "Highly common and totally awesome?"

If that's true that would mean they have the actual UE3 readily available so they could conceivably bring other UE3 titles to the Mac. I would like Batman Arkham Asylum as well personally for starters. Although Borderlands doesn't seem to push as many features as other UE3 games as I have it running almost perfectly through a WINE based compatibility layer on my iMac and I still haven't got UT3 or Mirror's Edge to... but they are getting closer with each revision of the software I use. I guess it helps that Borderlands is also by Gearbox who made a game Feral previously ported and they can give them the source code? Wouldn't Feral also have to buy an UE3 license? I take it they can go over Ryan Gordon's head or something? Would he contribute any code or would Feral do it all themselves?

I think a problem with a lot of other UE3 games is they tend to use more Windows centric middleware such as Games For Windows Live, .net, etc. which has to be replaced when they attempt to port them to OS X. Borderlands doesn't seem to and it uses Gamespy for multiplayer.

Brothers in Arms 2 was UE2 based so that probably helped.... those games seem to be pretty easy to port since UE2 code is highly available for the Mac.

What would be great is if this porting partnership with Gearbox would continue so we would get future games such as if Aliens Colonial Marines ever gets released and the Duke Nukem game(s) Gearbox is working on.

The support for cards varies per game depending on the features the game uses. In the case of Mini Ninjas a hardware feature is not supported on these older cards when running Mac OS X so we have had to exclude them from the supported list. Newer OS updates add new features to OpenGL but these are normally new features for currently shipping cards, the card you mention have not been sold in a Mac machine by Apple since June/August 2007. (Some MacPro machine may have shipped with affected cards after this date but unlike iMacs and laptops you can update your graphics card if you have a Pro).

We are looking at ways of getting the game running on the ATI X1000 and NV 7000 series of cards however as it is almost 3 years after one of these cards was sold in a new Mac means the chances of driver updates to these older cards is not likely, the latest build of 10.6.4 we tested did not fix the issue we have in Ninjas (all the heroes draw as squashed people instead of correctly).

Hope that explains things a bit for you,

Edwin

Hmm. The extensions that the X1000 series GPUs miss under 10.6.3 compared to the HD2000 and 8000 series under 10.5.8 are EXT_bindable_uniform, EXT_draw_buffers2, EXT_gpu_shader4, and EXT_texture_integer all of which I believe are DX10 hardware features. If one of those extensions are needed in newer games, than I guess no amount of OS updates will help older DX9 GPUs. In any case, thanks for the explanation.

Smoke_Tetsu, on 13 July 2010 - 01:20 AM, said:

Any guesses as to what the new game added to the upcoming releases radar now that they've released Mini Ninjas is? The codename is "Dust Devil".

At first glance, I thought the "Dust Devil" picture was just a stylized version of the "Prowse" picture. I was hoping for Dirt 2, seeing I don't believe we've had a major Mac racing game in a while. But I guess, Borderlands as pointed out by others seems more likely.